100 Times Madness in the Mushroom Kingdom
by tribble608
Summary: 100 One-Shots for a challenge found on LJ. Will contain all kinds of pairings and mostly focus on Fawful, Kamek or other characters of the Mario & Luigi RPGs. This time: When Fawful suffers from nightmares, he seeks for the only one he knows: Kamek...
1. Introduction

**A/N: Hey, guys and gals! I found this really awesome challenge on LJ and just couldn't resist starting it! Here you'll get one-shots about many beloved Mario characters (but mostly Fawful, Kamek and everyone you can associate with them). **

**Please don't expect me to continue the challenge regularly, I do it for fun and when I can (and when I get ideas for OS's). =D**

**There isn't a rule about the length of the OS, so some may get really short, I'll do it like I feel it.**

**So, have fun!**

**Introduction**

_**Summary: **_**Starlow and Peach finally meet again and spend the day gossiping. Who goes out with whom? And why?**

_**Notes:**_** Nothing special to say about this OS.**

_**Game:**_** Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story**

Knock, knock. Peach smiled at the sound of the doorknocker and put the vase with flowers, which she had just picked in the castle garden, on the table. "Please come in!" The door opened and a tiny, yellow figure hovered in. It was a little sphere, with black, warm eyes, a star over her body and a big smile. "Hello Yello!" the star sprite chirped.

"Starlow! So good to see you again!" Princess Peach greeted her and took the tiny creature into a hug. "I missed you, you know? After all that happened, we didn't see each other way too long."

"I totally agree" Starlow said. "But now we finally managed to have an afternoon for ourselves. Great!"

Peach nodded and led Starlow to the table, which she had decorated with flowers. Tea sets also were placed there, so that Peach and Starlow could have a nice tea party together. A straw was in Starlow's cup, so that she could drink the tea easily (as a star sprite, she didn't possess the hands to take the cup). "Wow, Princess, that you made such an effort to welcome me this nicely, I'm flattered!" Starlow gaped, but Peach waved the comment off with her small hand.

"Oh no, my dear, nothing would be too big an effort to greet you. Plus I had my Toads to do the work for me, I just picked the flowers." Peach laughed. "But enough of the polite talking, Starlow, you know we're best friends and now I want to know all the dirty details." Peach sat down on one of the two white chairs and Starlow took her place in the other one, letting the rest renew her energy to hover. Then she looked at the mushroom princess innocently.

"Which dirty details, Peach?" she asked, forgetting all about the "Princess"-stuff now. "I don't know what you mean." But the twitching of her right mouth corner told the princess secrets already.

"Oh, come on, you know you want to tell me every single rumor that you heard." Peach poured tea in Starlow's and then in her own cup, took a sip and smiled slyly. "And I'm sure you've heard lots of them – you're always there where the news is. _And_ you're small enough to hide and get _all_ the gossip that Kylie Koopa wouldn't have found even in her best days. Starlow… you would be a great journalist, you know that?" Peach buttered Starlow up and could see her getting red slightly.

"O-oh… Peach…" Starlow shook her head and Peach could see that she gave up her fake noblesse. "You're right." She took a sip of her tea, cleared her throat and leaned forward, a serious and meaningful expression on her face. "So… You know that Luigi is on a way to Beanbean Kingdom to have a vacation there?" She said, starting the gossiping immediately.

"Yes and I already asked myself why he would travel there to have vacation, it's not the nicest place in the world and our kingdom has wonderful beaches as well."

"Yes, but his trip to Beanbean has a bigger reason than just relaxing. You know… Luigi is going to meet someone there" Starlow said with an ominous tone in her voice. "Someone he holds very dear."

Now it was Peach's turn to lean forward. "Whom is he going to meet? Not Queen Bean!"

Starlow snickered slightly. "No, not Queen Bean. Instead… Prince Peasley!" The last two words were spoken out loudly and Peach made big eyes, her curious look turning into an amused grin.

"Prince Peasley? Oh holy Power Star! That's not true!"

"Yes, it is!" Both Starlow and Peach began laughing out loudly: Peach fell back in her chair, holding her stomach, while Starlow, losing the control over her body, bounced up several times on the cushion of her chair.

After a while, Peach sat up and put the crown, which had fallen off her head, back on her blonde hair. "So… Luigi and Peasley?"

"Yes! I swear, it is true! Luigi is so looking up to Peasley and you know the prince. He likes being looked up at."

"Where did you get the news?"

"Oh, I have my sources. Mario told me Luigi was going on a trip to Beanbean all alone and as I investigated further, I found out, where _exactly _he was going."

"And then?"

Starlow blushed. "Then I asked him personally. He's not a good liar, I just had to poke him a bit and all the information shot out of him."

Peach giggled. "Oh, you're a smart one, Starlow. More news!"

Starlow put out her tongue, thinking of more embarrassing details to tell the princess. "I guess, you know Kamek already…?"

"The nanny of Bowser?"

"Yes, you could call him a nanny" Starlow snickered.

"He and I had some very interesting conversations when Bowser kidnapped me, he is a very intelligent magikoopa."

"I saw him flying over to Yoshi's Island more than twice. He's meeting someone there."

"How do you get to know about where all the people go when and whom they meet" Peach started, but Starlow interrupted her.

"I thought, oh holy shroom, is he going to meet a Yoshi there? Have the Yoshi's finally ceased their hate towards him?" Peach shrugged, quite uninterested, but Starlow continued her rambling. "NO!" She cried out.

"Woah…"

"He, Kamek, dates a giant Piranha Plant!"

Peach gaped. "Please _what?_" And they burst out laughing again. "_Naval?_" Peach asked seconds later, when Starlow gave her the name. "Somehow the name says something to me…"

"She helped him, when he kidnapped Mario and Luigi when they were babies, you remember?"

"Of course! This mutant is together with Kamek?"

Half an hour of gossiping and laughing later, a worried Toadsworth opened the door slightly. "P-princess? Is everything alright? OH MY –" Peach hung over her chair, her dress full with tea and Starlow bounced up and down in her chair giggling madly.

"Everything's okay, Toadsworth." Peach grinned at him, her hair standing to all sides. "You can go and not worry anymore."

"Y-yes, princess…" Toadsworth backed away and closed the door again.

"Bowser would love to introduce you to the children as their new mother, though, haven't you noticed?"

"Of course I noticed, but do you really think I'd love someone so rude? He could just come and ASK for a date, but noooo, he just _has_ to kidnap me, every time! He doesn't learn, THAT'S the problem!"

"_Why didn't you tell anyone that Fawful is still alive? He is dangerous!_"

"No, he's not, believe me! I mean, he sleeps in the arms of Midbus and talks to a picture of his long dead mistress! He's poor. And I can't help but think that Midbus has a kind of pedophile side… He cares for Fawful way too much."

After this day, Peach and Starlow were both sure: Strange things were going to happen in the Mushroom Kingdom, people were going to love other people and lots of things were going to get crushed… "Guess this was just the beginning of a love wave…"

"Yes, guess so… When they can't take over the world, they concentrate on other things, don't they? Anyway, yello good-bye, Peach! Was a beautiful afternoon!"

Peach nodded, letting Starlow go, slightly wondering if the Toads had maybe put something in her tea and why Starlow was not the least bit worried about all the news she had just brought.

**Please leave a little comment and tell me what you think!**

**Spread the Mario-love! 3**


	2. Seeking Solace

**A/N: Haah, I love this chapter, to be honest! :D**

**Much fun with my two favorite characters^^**

**Seeking Solace**

Kamek sat at his desk, his snout deep in some papers that lay before him. The sheets were full with scribbled magical formulas, quick drawings of Yoshies and different things a non-magical being wouldn't be able to understand. Just a few candles lit the room and wrapped the magikoopa in a dim, mysterious light, while he crossed out words and replaced them with other words, cursing and mumbling while doing so. "'Shrooms" Kamek muttered and crumpled up a piece of paper, throwing it behind him. "This can't work…" How Bowser imagined Kamek to do such a difficult kind of magic that was so different from the spells he usually used… As if it would get him Peach. The sorcerer adjusted his glasses and concentrated hard, thinking through the formulas again and throwing away more papers. It was nothing. He would have to start all over again.

Kamek sighed and rummaged through the mess on his desk, intending to calculate everything newly, when it shyly knocked at his door. He sat up. Who could that be? Firstly, it was deep in the night. Everybody was probably sleeping already. It could be Bowser, impatiently waiting for his spell to be ready, but he had been presumably the first one to hop into his bed. Secondly, nobody would knock so tentatively at his door, if somebody wanted something from him, they would knock hardly, scream or simply break in the door (like Bowser and the koopalings often did). Kamek looked up and blinked to see the door in the dim light. "Who is there?" he asked loudly.

No answer came. Instead it knocked again.

"Who is there?" Kamek repeated unnerved. "I won't let you in, if I don't know, who you are."

It stayed silent for a while, then a voice upraised. The visitor seemed to have decided that telling his name wouldn't hurt him. The voice was high pitched and uneasy. "It is being Fawful" it said.

Kamek shot up from his chair. "Now that was unexpected" he muttered to himself and grabbed his wand. "What do you want?" he then asked loudly and prepared to fight. What did one of the most feared villains in Mushroom Kingdom's history here, alive? Knocking at Kamek's door shyly and not flying in through the main door, demanding the castle? And how could he have survived? Everyone thought he was dead…

"Fawful is demanding to be let to the inside of your room."

Kamek raised an eyebrow, forgetting that that wouldn't be seen, then said: "Forget it."

"Please-ing…" Fawful said all of a sudden. It sounded cracked and begging and Kamek wondered. The Fawful he knew would never say please. Not for something this worthless as being let inside a room. "Here Fawful will be seen and thrown into the dungeons of wetness, because he is possessing no weapons at the moment that is being now, to defend himself" he whispered. "It is much embarrassing to be begging outside of here, so…"

Kamek opened the door and saw the surprised beanish scientist looking at him. "Come in" the magikoopa said. "But quickly."

Fawful did as he was told and hushed into the room. Kamek looked left and right before he shut the door behind them. When he turned, Fawful already sat on the bed, looking down on the floor.

"How did you survive?" Fawful didn't answer. The sorcerer immediately noticed that something was wrong. Fawful seemed hurt. He looked down and the big grin he usually wore was gone, replaced by a desolate expression. Kamek knew this look. It was the look of someone who had just lost everything, even his pride. His once magnificent cloak was torn and dirty and his glasses had cracks. "Why did you come to me" Kamek asked unemotional. "We don't know much. You can't expect pity from me. Not after all you did to Bowser _and_ to me." He quickly walked over to his desk and put away the sheets he had scribbled on. "Do you want to steal my work?"

"No" Fawful said, a defiant tone resonating in his voice. "Fawful isn't one to steal work of others; he makes his own brilliant plans and inventions." His spectacles threw back the light of the candles to Kamek, making it impossible for him to see Fawful's eyes behind the swirly glasses. Now that he was inside Kamek's room, the begging from before was completely gone and Fawful looked embarrassed at the thought of the please he had pronounced.

Silence ruled the room now and Kamek sat down at his desk, looking at the strange visitor. Fawful sat there as if he had been invited and he was really going on Kamek's nerves, even though he hadn't said anything. "So why are you here then" he snapped, ripping Fawful out of his trance. The Beanish hesitated. It was clear to Kamek that Fawful didn't come because he had wanted to. Someone had forced him and if it had just been some rational (or irrational?) part of his mind. The candles flickered, as if some breath of wind had spoken to them, but Kamek knew it was just his own magical aura that moved the candles with anger. "Why. Are. You. Here. Then."

"Fawful won't be telling."

"Come on!" Kamek burst out and threw his claws in the air. "You came here for a reason and it is not to steal my inventions, so… you seem hurt. Do you need someone to talk to? You are young. A child, so it seems, not that I know how old you are. But what happened to you was… traumatizing. So _shut up your pride and tell me why you came!_"

"Fawful doesn't want to be left alone."

"GOOD! Finally you say something!"

"Cease the loudness" Fawful muttered.

Kamek sighed. "Tell me what's going on or get out. Do you think I like having a crazy bean in my room?"

"Fawful somehow survived the kamikaze attacking at the mustaches who he hates… and now he has loneliness… such loneliness… and the magikoopa that is you is the only one Fawful could think of coming to." Fawful immediately regretted saying that but Kamek was right. The nightmares wouldn't stop if he didn't finally tell someone. He needed to shut up his pride if he wanted to sleep properly ever again. "So I _had_ coming to the one who is you."

Calming, Kamek answered: "Didn't… didn't you have a minion? This big pig-like monster?"

"You are meaning Midbus! Y-yes, Fawful still thinks of Midbus all the time. But Midbus had the freezing after his battle with the Bowser that I hate and Fawful is still working on defreezing him. It has scare to be living next to a frozen person, do you know?"

Kamek felt a chill run down over his back und thought that he could imagine. And how often did he revive Bowser, having his bones lie next to him… but he was never alone, he had the koopa troop and the children with him. Fawful was all by himself. "So tell me what's bothering you", Kamek said, a bit of kindness sneaking in his voice.

"T-the Dark Star" Fawful said, his voice getting quiet. "The Dark Star's bothering Fawful."

Kamek frowned. "How does it bother you?"

"It has appearing", Fawful said, "in my dreams. It haunts Fawful's very memory, making Fawful wake up in the night that is dark and scream."

"The Dark Star did terrible things to you, didn't it? You wanted to control it but instead it controlled you."

"Fawful was being locked in a corner of his own mind. The Dark Star… it had saying terrible things to the one who is me. It…" Fawful paused, looking up in concern. But Kamek didn't seem to plan embarrassing things with the information he was receiving at the moment, so Fawful continued. "It still has saying terrible things to the one who is me. Though it isn't in existence anymore."

"That's normal, I guess" Kamek said, not quite knowing why he had to play psychiatrist for that maniac now. But he did it and that mattered. He couldn't let Fawful all alone right now, even though he wanted to. A memory suddenly came up in his mind, Fawful had remembered him of a scene that happened not too long ago.

"Don't cry, Junior, don't cry" Kamek said and took the paws of the koopa prince to make him look into his eyes. "Bowser didn't mean it. He never does."

Bowser Junior sniffled, looking at Kamek. "But it always sounds as if he would mean it" he wailed. "I work hard to make him like me, to make him proud of me and he always yells."

Kamek smiled, knowing this habit of Bowser only too well. "That doesn't matter. He yells at me too. All the time."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. That's not important. Important is, that he doesn't really mean it. He's frustrated easily because he doesn't get what he wants. I guess, I failed in raising him, so blame it on me if he yells at you." Junior managed a tiny smile. "And it's important that he loves you. And coincidentally I know that he does."

"He does?" Junior looked at him with big eyes.

Kamek nodded. "He does." He patted Junior's head. "Just continue your trying and if you catch him on a good day, he'll tell you that he's proud of you."

Junior smiled bigger now. "Yeah? Great! You're too nice to be evil, you know?"

"I get that a lot" Kamek answered, raising an eyebrow.

Junior laughed and stormed away, suddenly eager to play and Kamek watched him shortly before going again to work.

"How old are you?" Kamek asked all of a sudden.

"Why is that of importance for you?" Fawful asked back.

"It's important because I say it."

Fawful hesitated, but eventually he spoke up. "Fawful is at the age of thirteen."

_So, a child_, Kamek thought. _No wonder I am kind. Curse my niceness._

"Fawful is missing his mistress in all of the time" Fawful said then, obviously wanting to speak all of his problems off his soul.

"Now that's something special. Cackletta was her name?"

Fawful nodded. "She was being a mistress of greatness."

"Of course you miss her."

"By the time of now, more than ever. The Great Cackletta could have stopped the nightmares of Fawful. She…" He stopped mid-sentence and made a coughing noise. Kamek thought that he was choking, but then Fawful began crying. It was silent crying, just tears that ran down his face and wet his cloak.

"Now calm, boy" Kamek said and stood up from his chair. He sat down next to Fawful. "You can't change that Cackletta's gone. Learn to live with it."

Fawful sniffled. "Fawful had living with it for four years now. But still… sometimes the sadness hits Fawful's face like the hammers of mustachioed brothers and then he has crying."

"That's normal too" Kamek said. Then he patted Fawful's back slow and kind of shyly. "You okay now?"

Fawful looked up at him and wiped his tears away. "Yes… Fawful was having stupidity. He can't let the sadness hit his face anymore."

"Good, then you can go away, can you? I have much work to do."

"NO!" Fawful screamed, then looked at Kamek with hidden concern. "Fawful was thinking he could… maybe-ing… use your bed to sleep in this night? Fawful fears the Dark Star may have a comeback and…"

Kamek sighed. _Why me, hmm? Why does it always have to be me._ "Fine" he eventually snapped. "Just for one night and if Bowser catches you, it's your own fault. Don't expect me to help you out then."

"Yaaay!" Fawful jubilated and pushed Kamek off his own bed, cuddling into the blankets. The magikoopa grumbled, but stood up and went to his desk again, to continue working at Bowser's spell, when Fawful spoke up again. "Thankings, Kamek" he said.

Kamek smiled at his desk slightly, but didn't answer.

"But don't forget!" Fawful said and sat up in Kamek's bed again. "Tomorrow Fawful will have the hating towards you again! And as soon as he manages to defreeze Midbus, he will take over your castle again!"

"Of course" Kamek mumbled and scribbled on a new sheet of paper.


End file.
